Anyway so I started and finished Japanese for Busy People 1 (which i borrowed from a friend), then i decided to continue with the second one. Recently i was wandering in the store and I saw "Japanese For Everyone", while browsing through it it seemed more in depth then the JFBP.

SOO I was wondering if i should skip JFBP 3 and simply get Japanese for Everyone. I don't mind going through the same topics i studied before, since its a good review.

While JFE(Japanese for everyone ) is a great book, the general advice around here is to stick to a book/series of books once you've started them. Switching to another book is usually problematic for a number of reasons. First and foremost different books cover things in wildly different orders, usually in order of what they believe is least difficult up to the more challenging stuff. JFE however is even more complicated than that. It uses a situational approach so while it is a very meaty book(I should know I own a copy of it) the grammar is all over the place, and the chapters are very dense information wise. The first chapter for example has everything from te forms to negatives and a lot more. JFE is a great book but if you are already well into Japanese for Busy People, stick with that.

I disagree somewhat. I think there's no harm in switching to JFE if you start JFE from the beginning. If you try to start JFE in the middle assuming it has all the same stuff in JFBP1, then yeah, you'll have trouble, but that's not what the OP wants to do.

I've "mostly" completed JFBP1 myself (by "mostly" I mean I made flash cards out of all the spoken dialogue, and I'm adding sentences with the vocabulary words to my flash cards via smart.fm, but I didn't actually do the exercises in the book), but JFBP just doesn't seem to be "doin' it" for me. There's an important rule in language learning: if you don't like what you're doing, stop it and try something else. This applies to a book series as much as anything. So, like the original poster, I'm likely to switch over to JFE myself (I already have it anyhow). Who knows, I could end up doing both just to be extra comprehensive, but I need a bit more disposable income before I go buying Japanese books willy-nilly.

Are you looking for a textbook recommendation? Any textbook will help you. A lot. I'm pretty sure about that.If a textbook is too easy for you, it's a waste of money. If a textbook is too hard for you, it's probably a waste of money too. In both cases the reason is "you won't learn much from it."

I like the Japanese in Mangaland textbook series because:1) It is written by a non-native speaker, just like you,2) It is designed for self-study and3) It uses at least some actual manga examples of the grammar points you are learning.

Most textbooks cannot say (1).(3) is important. The manga-ka wrote what they did in order to convey some concept or idea, not to teach you Japanese. The Mangaland series has contrived examples too, but at least they use some actual examples.

Kef said in another post that he is doing a "learn Japanese through videogames" project (a website). I think this a great idea.

If you're switching textbooks:Most textbooks have an example dialog and example reading per chapter. Skip in the book to where you think you should be. Read the example dialog and reading. Did you understand these? If so, you should skip that chapter and move on to the next one.

jcdietz03 wrote:Kef said in another post that he is doing a "learn Japanese through videogames" project (a website). I think this a great idea.

One thing, though, is that the site is mostly intended for people who already have some Japanese under their belt -- probably people who are roughly at my own level (or better), which I'd roughly put in between JLPT4 and JLPT3 (though my kanji knowledge is much more than JLPT4). For instance, the grammar in JFBP1 wouldn't be enough (I already know much more grammar than what's in that book; the vocabulary is a different matter, though, and I'm still adding words to my flash cards that I'd skipped over the first time through). There will be some explanation of some fairly basic idioms, like ～に気を付ける, but there will be a minimum you're assumed to know, like how to conjugate the -te form and most of its basic uses, for example.

It also might be a little while before the site is ready, since other things are currently occupying my time, including studying Japanese itself... ^^;